Dr. Emily Hunter McGowin has entered the Tent to take part in Chris Marchand's annual Christmas episode. She has just released her new book Christmas: The Season of Life and Light which offers reflections, insights, and gentle challenges about how we celebrate the holiday season. The conversation dwells on the major themes Chris addressed in his own Christmas book as well as past episodes, namely, the political nature of serving others, finding a way to rest, unleashing our festive side, and finally, being drawn to the worship of the Christ-child.

Dr. McGowin's book can be purchased here. An alternate version of this episode, with additional material, was released on the PostConsumer Reports Podcast. She was one of the guests in Chris' previous series "Women in Church Leadership," which can be listened to here. You can find out more about her, including her other publications at her website.

If you are interested in reading Chris's book on the 12 days of Christmas you can find it here or here. Chris's Christmas music can be found here. And last year's Christmas episode (on sad Christmas songs) can be found here.

Has anything we make been interesting, useful or fruitful for you? You can support us by becoming a Fellow Traveller on our Patreon page HERE.

Austin M. Freeman, professor at Houston Christian University, joins the tent for another bonus episode to discuss J.R.R. Tolkien's views on non-violence and war. Who exactly is the "pacifist" in The Lord of the Rings and why isn't it Tom Bombadil? In two archival episode segments Melody Green, dean of Urbana Seminary, is featured with her owns thoughts about Tolkien. Dr. Freeman is the author of the book Tolkien Dogmatics and Dr. Green is the editor of Tolkien and the Arts: a theology of subcreation.

You can find Dr. Freeman's book here and Dr. Green's book here. You can find out more about Urbana Seminary's Tolkien Conference here.

The full interview with Dr. Freeman can be found here and the full interviews with Dr. Green can be found here and here. Other than the Tent Talks interview, these episodes were originally released on the PostConsumer Reports Podcast.

Has anything we make been interesting, useful or fruitful for you? You can support us by becoming a Fellow Traveller on our Patreon page HERE.

Musician, songwriter, and worship leader Rachel Wilhelm joins the Tent with Chris Marchand to discuss her new album Jeremiah and how she approached writing songs that speak truth to leaders in power while also calling for communal repentance. Though a bonus episode, this conversation pieces together a number of elements from previous Tent Talks series: 1) Rachel contributed the theme song to Chris's series Women in Church Leadership (which is discussed in the interview), 2) speaking truth to power and discerning true prophets from false prophets is a topic Stephen covered in a previous episode, and 3) this is something of a bonus "Disagree" episode as Rachel and Chris have a significant (though respectful) disagreement about the use of violence. 

You can listen to Rachel's music anywhere you stream music or support her more directly by listening to and purchasing her music on Bandcamp (which also has an app) or through her website.

For rest of Chris's interview with Rachel, check out his podcast PostConsumer Reports. The previous Tent Talks episode on prophets (true and false) can be found here.

Has anything we make been interesting, useful or fruitful for you? You can support us by becoming a Fellow Traveller on our Patreon page HERE.

One of the episodes we received the most feedback about was when Clare Backhouse, Stephen's wife, appeared in our "How to Love" series. Clare, a qualified and registered nutritional therapist, is now launching her own podcast, "Nutrition With Love." Her first episode, which we are releasing as a bonus, goes into her background story and why nutrition plays such a vital role in our overall health.

You can find out more about Clare and contact her for a consultation at her website, and you can find her podcast here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

The theme song for "Nutrition With Love" was composed and recorded by Chris Marchand. You can find his music here.

Previous Tent guests Danielle Shroyer and Thomas Jay Oord join Sean for the fifth episode of the Disagree series to offer their perspective on how to enter into difficult conversations with calmness and an inner peace that does need to force other people to switch to your side of an argument. It may take us years to do so, but they point the way to helping engage with sharp disagreements in ways that still manages to offer people grace and care.

You can find out more about Danielle Shroyer here and Thomas Jay Oord here.

Has anything we make been interesting, useful or fruitful for you? You can support us by becoming a Fellow Traveller on our Patreon page HERE.

Ryan Walker joins Sean McCoy for the fourth episode of the Disagree series to discuss the ins and outs of being a lobbyist and policymaker within the U.S. Government. Taking a relational approach Ryan hopes to help groups in Washington D.C. "wade through the bureaucracy and manage the increasing unpredictability of politics" in order to help them come to make difficult decisions for complex solutions.

You can read more about his background here.

Has anything we make been interesting, useful or fruitful for you? You can support us by becoming a Fellow Traveller on our Patreon page HERE.

Dr. Anika Prather is a literature professor, classical educator, and author. She is currently the Director of High Quality Curriculum and Instruction at Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and with her husband founded The Living Water School. She joins the Disagree series to discuss with Chris Marchand how to approach teaching about and having difficult conversations about race and racism. Using an approach of love, grace, and lament, she still manages to address the painful truths of history while seeking for a greater communal and cultural healing. In this conversation she and Chris discuss historically black colleges and universities, "whiteness" vs. white supremacy, and the realities of American slavery.

You can find out more about Anika's work at her website, her podcasts Reclaiming the Canon and Kush Classics, or by reading her book The Black Intellectual Tradition, co-written with Angel Parham.

Has anything we make been interesting, useful or fruitful for you? You can support us by becoming a Fellow Traveller on our Patreon page HERE.

Pete Wehner is an American writer and former speechwriter for the administrations of three Republican U.S. presidents. He is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and a contributing editor at The Atlantic, He joins Stephen Backhouse for a respectful and honest conversation on violence, patriotism and the Christian witness: topics about which Pete and Stephen deeply disagree.

You can find out more about Pete and his work HERE.

Has anything we make been interesting, useful or fruitful for you? You can support us by becoming a Fellow Traveller on our Patreon page HERE.

This is the first episode in our new series "Disagree". We are talking with people from different sides of different aisles and from people on the frontlines of some of the most contentious issues of the day. How can we disagree well?  What is the value of disagreement? Is it worth it? Can be it good? What happens when it goes bad? To help kick off the series we spoke with Simon Croft. Simon is a mediator and a practitioner of non-violent communication. He joined our discussion along with some Fellow Travellers, members of the Tent Talks community. 

To find out more about Simon and his work, check out his profile HERE. 

Has anything we make been interesting, useful or fruitful for you? You can support us by becoming a Fellow Traveller on our Patreon page HERE.

In the final episode of her series on Interrupting Serious Youth Violence Rev. Natasha Beckles covers how the Compassionate Communities toolkits are centered around helping churches to work within their communities to interrupt serious youth violence. Using the meaning behind the figure of the Pieta as a foundational image (Mary holding Jesus after being taken down off the cross) she also discusses the many projects and resources she and the Diocese of London are implementing to bring change in their communities in the hopes of helping young people and their families. This episode's co-host includes Revd. Pete Hopkins.

For more information on Compassionate Communities please visit their website.

The theme music for this series is by Nikita Khamenskii. You can find his music here or commission a work through his Fiverr page.

Has anything we make been interesting, useful or fruitful for you? You can support us by becoming a Fellow Traveller on our Patreon page HERE.